By Patrick Worsnip UNITED NATIONS, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The Security Council extended the mandate of the U.N. mission in Nepal, originally meant to be there for just one year following a civil war, for six more months on Wednesday because of delays in elections. The mission, known as UNMIN, was sent to the Himalayan state a year ago to assist with elections as well as to monitor weapons stored at camps for former Maoist rebels and was due to end on Wednesday. It has more than 800 staff, including nearly 200 arms monitors. The war, in which nearly 13,000 people died, ended after 10 years in 2006, but the elections, originally set for last June, have been twice delayed amid disputes between the country's political parties and ethnic unrest. The vote is now set for April 10. "The challenging timelines set out in the agreement will require efforts among all the parties to build mutual confidence," said the British-drafted resolution prolonging the mandate. The extension was requested by Nepal's government. "The original hope had been that UNMIN's role in supporting Nepal's peace process ... could be accomplished within the initial mandate of 12 months," U.N. special envoy for Nepal Ian Martin told reporters. "Like all peace processes, Nepal's peace process has had its ups and downs." Martin said meeting the grievances of ethnic groups who felt excluded from the political process would be "the central challenge" to holding the elections on time. "The dialogue needs to be urgent, it needs to be real and there needs to be a commitment to implement agreements that are reached with those groups," he said. Unrest in the plains of the southern Terai has cast a shadow over the poll. Scores of people have been killed in protests by ethnic Madheshi people, demanding autonomy for the fertile Terai, or in clashes between dozens of other groups since the government's peace deal with the Maoists was signed. The new assembly is meant to write a new constitution for Nepal and formally declare the country a republic after more than two centuries of royal rule. In a recent report on Nepal, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he had considered reducing the size of the U.N. mission but concluded that could "imperil the prospects for a successful election within the newly agreed time frame". Martin said: "In order to complete our task and exit we need not only that election to take place, we also need ... there to be a durable long-term solution to the management of arms and armies." (Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Nepal's Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala uses a nasal cannula for oxygen supplement at his official residence in Kathmandu January 23, 2008. Koirala, Nepal's ailing 83-year-old prime minister, was "stable" on ...
